The other day, I was having a literary/philosophical discussion
with a couple of friends, and while listening to one of them speak
I realized that I was just barely able to understand what
he was saying. The conversation had reached that point where the
words and concepts had become so thoroughly larded with advanced
and previously introduced ideas that each word coming out of his
mouth was a summary of a paragraph. I was so amazed and distracted
by this state of affairs, by the grinding of the gears in my head
that were processing this rich stream of thought, that of course I
lost the thread and could only smile vacantly.